In 2018, after a heated election the place Republicans hurled each little bit of hateful rhetoric they might muster about her age, gender, and sexual orientation, Senator Emily Randall beat her anti-choice opponent and flipped the twenty sixth Legislative District blue.
Within the State Senate, there is a custom the place new members are launched with speeches from their colleagues. Certainly one of us (Senator Liias) seized the second to ensure the Republicans knew Randall was “queer,” repeating it seven instances in a single speech. She’s the primary queer state senator in Washington’s historical past, and that reality wasn’t simply historic—it was monumental.
Emily Randall is our colleague and good friend, and if she is elected to Congress, it will likely be a loss for the Washington State Legislature—however everyone knows the opposite Washington wants lots of assist.
The sixth Congressional District has existed for 91 years, and in these 91 years, it has solely ever been represented by white males. If Randall is elected, she would be the first lady and first particular person of shade to carry the seat, the primary brazenly LGBTQ+ particular person in Washington’s Congressional delegation, and the primary queer Latina elected to Congress wherever within the nation. That’s a giant fucking deal.
Illustration issues, however coverage and outcomes matter simply as a lot. In her six years within the Senate, Randall sponsored or co-sponsored almost 200 payments that turned legislation. After her first election in 2018, Randall shortly turned the Senate’s prime champion on abortion entry and reproductive well being. She’s been a frontrunner on primarily each reproductive well being invoice that has come by means of our chamber, together with main the struggle over the previous few years on laws to make sure hospital mergers don’t prohibit entry to abortion care. She additionally served because the chair of the upper training committee, the place she helped create probably the most beneficiant monetary help program for school college students of its time.
Due to this management, it was no shock when Deliberate Parenthood Motion Fund gave Randall their sole endorsement. Extra shocking was the endorsement that got here subsequent from Senator Patty Murray. The “mother in tennis sneakers” hardly ever will get concerned in contested Democratic primaries, however she selected to again Randall.
Whereas there are two Democrats on this race, Randall is the one one with a monitor document of passing laws and successful powerful elections towards Republicans. She’s additionally the one candidate endorsed by the Washington State Labor Council and the League of Conservation Voters Motion Fund. For all of those causes, she was the one candidate really helpful within the 2024 Progressive Voters Information.
Randall’s opponent, Hilary Franz, was endorsed by the Seattle Occasions Editorial Board and has completed nice work main wildfire response in Washington. However, there are some issues—latest reporting revealed that fifteen present and former workers on the Division of Pure Sources (DNR) have a variety of moral issues about Franz, together with the alleged use of state assets to assist her a number of political campaigns for increased workplace.
The Washington Public Staff Affiliation, which represents 750 DNR workers, mentioned they “made the error” of supporting Franz in her previous campaigns—and shortly after the article was printed, they filed an official ethics grievance with the Washington Govt Ethics Board.
These issues are an excessive amount of to disregard. We all know Emily Randall shares Washington state voters’ values of transparency and ethics, so we should ship her to Congress.
Randall will present up, work exhausting, and get shit completed—and be transformative for our state.
Additionally, even when The Stranger didn’t endorse within the major, we nonetheless love the outlet and can proceed to deliver snacks to our future endorsement conferences. We hope you rethink endorsing within the sixth within the basic election.
Senator Marko Liias and Senator Joe Nguyễn are members of the Washington State Senate.
